THE AMENDMENT LAW CONCERNING MATERNITY LEAVE AND REGULATIONS ON CONTENT PROVIDED IN THE INTERNET ENVIRONMENT HAS BEEN ADOPTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE Grand National Assembly Of Türkiye AND HAS ENTERED INTO FORCE
The “Bill on Amendments to the Social Services Law and Certain Other Laws,” which was deliberated and adopted by the General Assembly of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye, has entered into force upon enactment. The said legislative amendment introduces significant changes both to maternity leave provisions within the sphere of employment law and to the regulatory framework governing digital content.
I. Amendments Concerning Maternity Leave
Within the scope of the legislative amendment, the provisions relating to maternity and parental leave have been restructured as follows:
Under the previous legislation, the maternity leave period granted to female employees was stipulated as a total of sixteen weeks, consisting of eight weeks prior to childbirth and eight weeks thereafter. Pursuant to the amendment, while the pre-natal period has been preserved, the post-natal leave period has been extended to sixteen weeks, thereby increasing the total duration of maternity leave to twenty-four weeks.
With regard to pre-natal working conditions, in cases where the employee’s medical condition is certified as suitable by a physician’s report, the prior regulation permitted employment up to three weeks before the expected date of delivery. The new regulation reduces this period to two weeks, thereby enabling a longer period of leave to be utilized following childbirth.
It is further stipulated that female employees who have given birth as of the date on which the law entered into force, who have already exhausted their existing maternity leave entitlement but have not yet completed the twenty-four-week period calculated from the date of childbirth, shall, upon request, be entitled to an additional maternity leave of up to eight weeks.
In respect of employees in the private sector, paternity leave, which was previously limited to five days, has been extended to ten days in order to ensure alignment with the duration prescribed for public officials.
As for civil servants, it has been regulated that those who hold the status of foster parents shall be granted a leave of ten days upon request, commencing from the delivery of the child into their care.
The explanatory memorandum of the bill expressly states that the primary objective of extending the maternity leave period is to ensure the protection of both mother and child during the post-natal period, to support the mother’s physical recovery process, to facilitate the healthy continuation of breastfeeding, and to strengthen early childhood care.
II. Amendments Concerning Publications in the Internet Environment
Within the same legislative framework, comprehensive amendments have also been introduced to the law commonly referred to as the Law No. 5651, namely the “Law on the Regulation of Publications on the Internet and the Suppression of Crimes Committed by Means of Such Publications”:
The definitions section of the law has been expanded to include the terms “game,” “game provider,” and “game distributor,” thereby expressly bringing the digital gaming ecosystem within the scope of regulation.
Social network providers have been placed under an obligation not to provide services directly to children under the age of fifteen. In order to comply with this obligation, providers are required to implement the necessary technical and administrative measures, including, inter alia, age verification systems. Furthermore, provisions have been introduced requiring the development of differentiated services tailored to users aged fifteen and above.
It has been made mandatory for social network providers to offer parental control tools accessible to users. Such tools are required to include mechanisms enabling the management of account settings, subjecting paid transactions to parental consent, and monitoring and/or limiting usage duration.
For social network providers with a daily access exceeding ten million from Türkiye, an obligation has been introduced to comply with urgent decisions issued under Article 8/A of the law immediately and, in any event, within a maximum period of one hour.
Additionally, for such high-access providers, an obligation has been imposed to take the necessary measures to prevent the re-publication on their platforms of content in respect of which a prior decision for removal and/or access blocking has been issued.
The period for submitting information and documents requested by the Information and Communication Technologies Authority has been redefined as “immediately and within a period not exceeding fifteen days, as determined by the Authority.”
Game providers are now required to classify their games in accordance with age criteria, while game distributors are obliged to establish parental control mechanisms. It has further been stipulated that games which have not been classified may only be offered subject to their categorization under the highest age rating.
For foreign-based game distributors with a daily access exceeding one hundred thousand from Türkiye, an obligation has been introduced to appoint a representative in Türkiye and to notify the Authority accordingly. In the event of non-compliance, a regime of administrative fines followed by progressive sanctions, including bandwidth throttling, has been предусмотрено.
Moreover, social network providers and certain categories of game distributors are required to conduct risk assessments in relation to the services they provide to Türkiye and to report such assessments to the Authority. The Authority is vested with the power to request additional measures where deemed necessary, and in cases of non-compliance, administrative fines and bandwidth restriction measures may be imposed.
III. General Evaluation
When assessed holistically, the amendments indicate a clear legislative intent to strengthen protective mechanisms aimed at safeguarding children in the digital environment, to expand the responsibilities of social network providers in this regard, and to enhance the effectiveness of procedures concerning content removal and access blocking. Concurrently, the amendments pertaining to employment law demonstrate a policy orientation towards reinforcing social protection mechanisms for mothers and children in the post-natal period.